Local News

Fort Morgan residents displaced after fire

Part 1 of 2 about the March 4 blaze at apartments at 400 Kiowa Ave.

At least 33 Fort Morgan residents are currently unable to return to their homes after a fire at 400 Kiowa Ave. in the early morning hours last Monday.

Around 1:30 a.m. on Monday, March 4, about 22 firefighters and four trucks were called to the scene on Kiowa Avenue, Fort Morgan Fire Department First Lieutenant Dillon Prevost said this Tuesday.

Executive Director Susana Guardado of One Morgan County said their organization is working on an assessment of the situation. She said they have compiled a list of about 35 residents from the 12 units in the building, though she believes the total number could be closer to 40 people.

"We can confidently say that everyone is at least temporarily displaced. No one is allowed to be living in there right now," Guardado said.

Executive Director Melissa Venable from the Northern Colorado Red Cross, who was among those who provided direct support to residents in the days after the fire, said they worked with 33 people and a total of 10 families last week.

Guardado and Sue Boyett of Fort Morgan Cultures United for Progress said the immediate needs of the people displaced from their homes included temporary and permanent housing; winter clothing for men, women and children in a range of ages and hygiene products, among others.

"I believe six of those units are going to take some more time. We would be helping either these six families or these six units find a place to live," Guardado explained. "That is proving to be difficult"

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Guardado and Boyett said they and other partner organizations are still figuring out the immediate and long-term needs of the people affected by the fire. They urged anyone who has any information about housing options to contact One Morgan County at their location on Main Street or their office number 970-427-8790, or Boyett with FMCUP at 970-590-5922.

Guardado said the residents are a range of ages and families, and many of them are Cargill employees. She and others highlighted Cargill's supports of residents in the fire aftermath, including support by Fort Morgan Plant Manager Tyler Luft.

Cargill provided the following comment:

"We are glad that none of our employees were injured in the March 4 apartment building fire. Unfortunately, some of our employees' homes were affected and possessions lost. Cargill is rallying support for our impacted colleagues. This includes efforts to match them to community organizations we have relationships with, in order to provide affected employees with the support they need to meet both their short-term and long-term needs."

Boyett also requested anyone with housing options to contact her and FMCUP, who is able to provide any required interpreting services.

"We're looking for anyone who has some leads that can help us out to place these families and single Cargill employees in more long-term solutions. If they need help with language, Fort Morgan Cultures United for Progress is here to help out. We have interpreters who can come and assist with any kinds of those connections," Boyett said.

Since many of the residents reportedly speak languages aside from English, Boyett said FMCUP is able to provide translation services to facilitate housing connections.

"There are a couple different languages; I think Somali, Swahili, Oromo and Tigrinya," Boyett said. "We've got all of those languages in this small apartment building and we can get support to help folks communicate in all of those languages."

Early Monday morning

Prevost said the structure fire was in the third story and attic of the building and it took about three hours for the FMFD to clear the scene.

"It was an attic fire. I'm not sure what the cause was, we never heard," Prevost explained. "There's going to be a lot of smoke damage and water damage. As far as fire, there was damage to two apartments. It was an average size fire, just being on the third story and in the attic, it makes it harder to fight and find all of the extensions."

Prevost said they were not aware of any reported injuries. He said a fire like this one does not happen very often in Fort Morgan.

"Not recently, we probably have one or two in a building like this a year. It's kind of rare," he said.

Prevost said the Fort Morgan Police Department assisted with the evacuation of residents early Monday morning.

Chief of Public Safety Paul Schultz gave a brief description from the scene last week.

"This fire started in unit 12; it displaced all of the residents. The Red Cross was contacted to assist," Schultz explained.

"We just assisted the fire department, they put out the fire. Steve Glammeyer from the building department is in charge of the building inspectors, he was involved as well," Schultz added.

Since the fire, Schultz said they have tried to coordinate efforts since the fire took place.

"What the Police Department's been doing is trying to coordinate all of the resources towards the Red Cross, getting One Morgan County involved, getting Fort Morgan CUP involved and passing on that information," Schultz said.

Glammeyer said the top two units of the apartment building were badly damaged and that the building experience damage to their roof trusses. Along with this, Glammeyer said there is now a hole in the roof of the building.

For the lower floors, Glammeyer said the east side of the building received significant water damage. He said their concerns for the building were for the electrical and pipe systems in the building, especially on the east side and in the hallways. He said they were concerned for the electrical system from the water damage.

For the rest of the units, he said they were concerned about the ability for the building to be heated and to make sure the pipes did not freeze if the water was turned back on.

Glammeyer confirmed that, at this point, no one has been able to move back in. He has heard that at least and electrician and plumber have evaluated the situation.

Moving forward, Glammeyer said it would be up to the owner of the building to restore the building to use, though they make recommendations based on building codes and other safety considerations.

Watch for Part 2 of this story - covering community support and what happens next - in Thursday's edition of The Fort Morgan Times.

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